Wells College Students Present Fall Drama Production

A Piece of My Heart commemorates 30th anniversary of Vietnam War

The Wells College Theatre Department proudly presents A Piece of My Heart as this fall’s student drama production. The performance will be featured on Friday, November 4 and Saturday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Phipps Auditorium, Macmillan Hall. There will also be a Sunday, November 6 matinee at 2:00 pm. Prices are $3 for students and children, $5 for senior citizens and the Wells community, and $7 for the general public. Tickets are available from the box office the week preceding the show, and at the door the night of the performance. Please call 315/364-3456 to reserve.

Written by playwright Shirley Lauro, A Piece of My Heart speaks to the human effect of war, lending an inside look at combat from a woman's perspective. The production was specifically selected in observance of the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago. 

A Piece of My Heart focuses on the challenges that were particular to women in Vietnam. The play follows the story of three nurses, a Red Cross worker, a Women’s Army Corps member, and a USO entertainer as they volunteer for, serve in, and return home from Vietnam. 

The first act takes us to various military bases in Vietnam where the young women are “thrown in” to the life of a war nurse - 15 hours a day and no training.  We watch as a USO entertainer is loved by some military men and put in danger by others.  A Red Cross worker learns what it is like to be a “Donut Dolly,” in charge of keeping up the men’s morale.

The second act focuses on the women’s return home.  Welcomed by their families, spurned by protesters, the women try to fit into a vibrant 1960s life that went on in the United States without them.

Several Wells students have leading roles. Izzie Chacchia ’07, Rebecca Cooper ’07, Patricia Neal ’07, Laura Tennen ’07, Meggy Hai Trang ’06, and Lynne Sanchez-Fries ’06 portray the nurses, Red Cross workers, and USO entertainers that were so vital to the troops in Vietnam. Marshall Anderson ’09 plays "The American Male," depicting more than 15 different characters in the play. 

Angie Azevedo ’07 is the stage manager; Oren Robinson ’09 is assistant stage manager.  Christina Miglino ’07 serves as assistant director, and Grace Hansen ’09 is the understudy.

Joe DeForest, Wells’ technical director, creates a multi-purpose stage that includes platforms and ramps, sandbags and hanging nets.  Along with the painted camouflage colors and Mr. DeForest's lighting design, changes in time and place appear in front of the audience’s eyes in seconds.

Shirley Lauro is an award winning playwright, professor, and novelist. She has been nominated for both Tony awards and Drama Desk awards.  A Piece of My Heart won The Susan Blackburn Prize (finalist) as “Best English Language Play by a Woman”; The Barbara Deming Prize for Women Playwrights; and The Kittredge Foundation Award.

A Piece of My Heart is directed by visiting assistant theatre professor Siouxsie Grady of Ithaca. Grady received her Master of Theatre Education in Drama from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a B.A. in Speech and Theatre from the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Siouxsie has taught theatre workshops and classes across the country and most recently at Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre Company and the Hangar Theatre. A Piece of My Heart is produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. 

For more information about A Piece of My Heart, please contact director Siouxsie Grady at 315/364-3232.

October, 2005

Wells College Increases Awareness of Racial and Cultural Issues 

Dr. Oliva Espín lectures on ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality

The Wells College Psychology faculty are pleased to welcome Latina psychologist Dr. Oliva Espín to the Aurora campus for a two-day residency and public lecture. She is the last of three multicultural experts who were invited to the Wells campus this fall to share their insights into the psychological aspects of diversity. Dr. Espín will speak on “Multicultural Approaches in Psychology: Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, Class, Gender, and Sexuality” at 12:30 pm in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall on Thursday, October 27. All are invited to hear her free talk. A question and answer session will conclude the lecture.

Dr. Oliva M. Espín is Professor Emerita of Women's Studies at San Diego State University and Professor Emerita of Psychology at Alliant International University. She specializes in the psychology of Latinas, immigrant and refugee women, women’s sexuality across cultures, and qualitative research methodology. A native of Cuba, Dr. Espín received the 1991 Award for Distinguished Professional Contribution to Public Service from the American Psychological Association; the Distinguished Career Award from the Association for Women in Psychology in 2001; and distinguished publication awards from the AWP in 1993 and 1999. Dr. Espín has recently turned her attention to the study of women saints from feminist and psychological perspectives. 

While on the Wells campus, Dr. Espín will also give a classroom talk on integrating culture, race, gender, class, and sexuality in qualitative methods; hold open dialog workshop sessions with students and faculty on several different occasions; and will speak to students in the Indigenous Women’s Experiences class.

Dr. Espín’s residency at Wells College is sponsored by the Department of Psychology, and is made possible by a grant from the American Psychological Association’s Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training (CEMRRAT) and matching funds from the Dean of the College. This is one step in fulfilling the Psychology Department’s commitment to diversifying the psychology curriculum to be more relevant and welcoming to ethnic minority students. This effort is central to the recruitment and retention of all students, and especially students of color.

For more information about Dr. Oliva Espín and her residency and lecture at Wells College, please contact Kelly Tehan, Communications Director, at 315/364-3260.

October, 2005

Wells College Hosts Poetry Reading

Poet, editor, short story writer Peter Makuck to read from his work

The Wells College Visiting Writer Series presents a reading by short story writer and poet Peter Makuck. The reading will take place at 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 27 in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall. The free event will be followed by a reception with the author; refreshments will be served.

Peter Makuck is the editor of Tar River Poetry and has written several short story collections. His story “Filling the Igloo” from Breaking and Entering, published by the University of Illinois Press, was selected for publication in The Best of the Southern Review. He also co-edited An Open World, a collection of essays about Welsh writer Leslie Norris, a former Wells College Visiting Writer.

In addition to fiction, Dr. Makuck is a distinguished poet. His latest collection, Off Season in the Promised Land, was recently published by BOA. Other publications include Where We Live (1982), The Sunken Lightship (1990), and Against Distance (1998). Dr. Makuck received the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Award for his book of poems, Pilgrims, in 1989. His poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Nation, The Southern Review, and The American Scholar. He received his Ph.D. in American Literature from Kent State University. 

This poetry reading and the Wells College Visiting Writer Series are made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.  Poets and writers are invited to campus throughout the academic year to meet with students, present writing workshops, and read from their respective works.

For more information, please contact English professor Bruce Bennett at 315/364-3228.

October, 2005

Wells College Native American Scholar Leads Discussion on School Sports Team Mascot Debate

Professor Michael Taylor presents movie screening, lecture on University of Illinois case study

Wells College’s first Juliana James Native American Visiting Scholar will lead a case study discussion on sports team mascots that are used to represent Native American peoples. On Wednesday, October 12, Professor Michael Taylor will present a screening of “In Whose Honor,” a documentary on the University of Illinois and the mascot issue, then lead a discussion about the ongoing debate portrayed in the film. The screening begins at 4:45 pm in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall, followed by the discussion at 5:45 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.

For more than 30 years, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has worked to eliminate the stereotypical use of Native American images in sports team mascots and nicknames. In 1989, Charlene Teters, a Native American graduate student attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, initiated efforts to eliminate that school’s Chief Illiniwek mascot. Her cause was highlighted in Jay Rosenstein’s 1997 documentary film “In Whose Honor: American Indian Mascots in Sports,” which aired nationally on the Public Broadcasting System television show Point of View. Professor Michael Taylor will review the film and discuss the ongoing debate.

Michael Taylor received his B.A. and M.A. from State University of New York at Buffalo, and is a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University.  He has been a Scholar-In-Residence at Ithaca College and has taught at the State University of New York at Oswego and Buffalo, Syracuse University, and Cayuga Community College.  Professor Taylor has been the recipient of many fellowships and grants to support research on Native American mascot issues and to support tribal members in their academic pursuits. 

The Juliana James Native American Visiting Scholar fund was established last year to bring a scholar from the Six Nations or Haudenosaunee to the Wells campus. The fund supports broader campus diversity initiatives such as Native American Day and the new First Nations and Indigenous Studies minor, offered for the first time this fall. While on campus, Mr. Taylor is teaching a seminar entitled “A Survey of Iroquois Society,” serves as an academic mentor to the Student Diversity Committee, and will be giving two public talks, which will be open to the public. 

For additional information about this screening and lecture, and Professor Michael Taylor’s residency, please contact Communications Director Kelly Tehan at 315/364-3260.

October, 2005

Wells College Hosts Lecture, Book Signing on Alcoholism

Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed, looks at trends in abuse by young women

The Wells Colege Arts & Lecture Series Committee welcomes author Koren Zailckas to the Aurora campus for a lecture and book signing on Friday, October 21. Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood, will discuss her book, based on personal experience, at 7:30 p.m. in Barler Recital Hall. Prices are $6 for students, senior citizens and the Wells College community and $10 for the general public; free for Wells College students. Tickets are available at the door the night of the performance or from the box office the week preceding the show. Please call 315/364-3456 to reserve seats. Special group rates are available by calling 315/364-3232.

At age 24, just a few years after graduating from Syracuse University, Koren Zailckas wrote Smashed: Story of A Drunken Girlhood, a searing memoir about her decade-long struggle with alcoholism as a teenager and college student. Lauded by Entertainment Weekly as “one of the best accounts of addiction,” Ms. Zailckas’ book is vivid and cogent, offering a startling and insightful account of a battle that begins at age fourteen and culminates in her waking up in a stranger’s Manhattan apartment almost eight years later. Smashed is a wake-up call that poignantly reveals the disturbing trend of increased alcohol consumption and abuse by young women.

During her talk, Ms. Zailckas shares some of her personal experiences with binge drinking, and describes her first sip at fourteen, alcohol poisoning at sixteen, a blacked out sexual experience at nineteen, and the total disorientation and panic she felt after a drunken encounter left her in an unfamiliar apartment in New York City at twenty-two. Realizing that her life was at stake if she didn’t quit drinking, Ms. Zailckas kicked the bottle and went on to pen Smashed as a way to increase awareness of the alarming statistics surrounding young women and alcohol abuse.

Copies of Smashed will be available for purchase and signing following the lecture.

The Wells College Arts & Lecture Series features professional guest artists and performers who are brought to campus to enrich the cultural and academic components of Wells as a learning community. The acts are selected annually by a committee comprised of Wells faculty, staff, administrators, and students.

For more information about Koren Zailckas’ lecture and book signing and the Wells Arts & Lecture Series, please contact Siouxsie Grady, chair of the Arts & Lecture Series Committee, at 315/364-3232.

October, 2005
 
 

Wells College News Archive

Last updated 02/14/2006